Death cyclist fine angers family

[contagious]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/beds/bucks/herts/7496757.stm




The family of a 17-year-old girl who died after being hit by a cyclist has described the £2,200 fine handed to the man who hit her as "laughable".
Father Mick Bennett said Jason Howard should have faced manslaughter charges and been jailed for several years over Rhiannon Bennett's death in April 2007.
Howard, 36, of Buckingham, was fined on Tuesday after being convicted of dangerous cycling in the town.
The Crown Prosecution Service said the charge was the most appropriate one.
During Howard's trial, Aylesbury magistrates heard he had shouted at Rhiannon to "move because I'm not stopping" before crashing into her.

Diana Bennett calls for a change in the law
Rhiannon died six days after hitting her head on the pavement as a result of the collision in Verney Close, Buckingham.
Following the verdict, Mr Bennett said: "It's laughable - when we first heard about this we thought it would be manslaughter, or perhaps even murder, but this is Britain.
"He is an arrogant, vile little man."
Rhiannon's mother, Diana, said: "Words cannot express how broken-hearted we are as a family.
"My daughter ended up dying for him having a bike ride."
Mrs Bennett told BBC Five Live that the law had let them down.
She said: "He shouted a warning. There's no need to shout a warning. He's on his bicycle, he should have veered round them but even on impact with Rhiannon, he didn't even brake.
"He was on the footpath, where she should have been safe."
'Tragic accident'
A CPS spokesperson said: "A file of evidence from the police was reviewed by a senior CPS prosecutor and, based on that evidence, it was decided the charge of dangerous cycling was the most appropriate.
"Each case is kept under continuous review and following correspondence with Rhiannon's family, the case was looked at before and after the inquest into Rhiannon's death, which returned a verdict of accidental death.

The court heard Howard could have swerved and avoided the collision


"It was decided that the charge of dangerous cycling was the appropriate charge and there was insufficient evidence for more serious charges, such as manslaughter, to be pursued."
Sgt Dominic Mahon, of Thames Valley Police, told the BBC Howard could have been travelling at about 17mph (27km/h) when he struck Rhiannon, "imparting a great deal of force" on her.
Chris Thompson, Howard's solicitor, said: "It was a tragic accident that he will regret for the rest of his days. Jason understands how Rhiannon's family must be feeling at the moment."
Mr Thompson said he had advised Howard not to speak publicly on the matter until after civil proceedings had concluded.
"The family have said they intend to seek damages so we have to assume that a civil claim will follow," he said. Mr Thompson said his client found comments made after the case by Rhiannon's father, Mick Bennett, "very upsetting".

Shocking. The fact he was just fined is ridiculous.

[jrh2002]

The law only allows a £2500 fine and no prison etc :s so if you dont like somebody run them over on your bike lol and the same offence in a car is 5 or 10 years? one of the 2. To be honest some of these cyclists do not care about any of the road rules and dont stop at red lights and ride in the road when they have a cycle lane :s race along the paths like idiots :s i think the laws need altering and using against the really bad ones.

[Hushie]

I dont even get how a bike could kill someone.

[flatface]

I dont even get how a bike could kill someone.

It's weird isn't it

[jrh2002]

I dont even get how a bike could kill someone.

Its pretty local to me so been all over local news.

The idiot was doing a time trial on a £4700.00 bike and shouted move to some girls and instead of stopping or going round them he hit them one of them at full speed (20ish mph they reckon) :o it was a man and not some little kid so to say hes stupid is an under statement.

Maybe she fell and smashed her head on the curb?

[flatface]

Its pretty local to me so been all over local news.

The idiot was doing a time trial on a £4700.00 bike and shouted move to some girls and instead of stopping or going round them he hit them one of them at full speed (20ish mph they reckon) :o it was a man and not some little kid so to say hes stupid is an under statement.

Maybe she fell and smashed her head on the curb?

Possibly, maybe thats why he only got a fine :P

[jrh2002]

Possibly, maybe thats why he only got a fine :P

A fine was the maximum penalty for dangerous cycling but its 10 years i think for dangerous driving. I have seen cases where there has been a fight and a person gets punched, has fallen and died from hitting their head on the floor :o that is still classed as murder/manslaughter (unless its self defence of course)

[Hushie]

Its pretty local to me so been all over local news.

The idiot was doing a time trial on a £4700.00 bike and shouted move to some girls and instead of stopping or going round them he hit them one of them at full speed (20ish mph they reckon) :o it was a man and not some little kid so to say hes stupid is an under statement.

Maybe she fell and smashed her head on the curb?

Oh i get it now thanks :)

[Neil]

The thing is yea he may of killed her but they should of moved, whether it was a cycle track or not they should of got out of the way, obviously he should of breaked but I see no evidence that he didn't break in that big chunk of text, the fine makes sense because arresting him would be too much, they probably have very little proof of what happened and it was an accident anyway, if she moved, she'd be alive, did she? Obviously not, she didn't deserve to die but she must of been pretty stuck up if he yelled for them to move and she did nothing

[jrh2002]

The thing is yea he may of killed her but they should of moved, whether it was a cycle track or not they should of got out of the way, obviously he should of breaked but I see no evidence that he didn't break in that big chunk of text, the fine makes sense because arresting him would be too much, they probably have very little proof of what happened and it was an accident anyway, if she moved, she'd be alive, did she? Obviously not, she didn't deserve to die but she must of been pretty stuck up if he yelled for them to move and she did nothing

There were lots of independent witnesses (local news had it on all day) and they were just getting off the road from crossing. The court say he never braked or made any attempt to go around them and they did speed up to get out the way. saying that when i get idiots crossing the road slowly thinking they are gangsters i always speed up just slightly and move over a bit and they dont look so hard when they realise im not slowing down for them haha :eusa_danc

[Loser]

Lightweight. I was runover by a bike when I was four and I was fine.

[FlyingJesus]

I was involved in a car crash at 50mph today and got away unscratched lol. There's a certain Ludacris song that he should have shouted at her I reckon, then she'd have gone

[Virgin Mary]

Why didn't she just move?

[contagious]

The thing is yea he may of killed her but they should of moved, whether it was a cycle track or not they should of got out of the way, obviously he should of breaked but I see no evidence that he didn't break in that big chunk of text, the fine makes sense because arresting him would be too much, they probably have very little proof of what happened and it was an accident anyway, if she moved, she'd be alive, did she? Obviously not, she didn't deserve to die but she must of been pretty stuck up if he yelled for them to move and she did nothing

No, he shouldn't have been on the sidewalk in the first place. How was she going to know where to move, why would she have to move out of a cyclists way when she was on the sidewalk which is for pedestrians? Where she was supposed to be safe? The only thing he had said was "move because I'm not stopping" - he made no attempt to break or swerve, that is what I would call stuck up. The fact that he could of swerved and avoided collision is even worse. Someone lost their life because of this arrogant man and hes gotten away with just a fine, its ridiculous.

[alexxxxx]

No, he shouldn't have been on the sidewalk in the first place. How was she going to know where to move, why would she have to move out of a cyclists way when she was on the sidewalk which is for pedestrians? Where she was supposed to be safe? The only thing he had said was "move because I'm not stopping" - he made no attempt to break or swerve, that is what I would call stuck up. The fact that he could of swerved and avoided collision is even worse. Someone lost their life because of this arrogant man and hes gotten away with just a fine, its ridiculous.

where does it say he was on a pavement. The photo suggests he was on the road.

[contagious]

;4895914']where does it say he was on a pavement. The photo suggests he was on the road.


"He was on the footpath, where she should have been safe."

As above.

Edit; if you hover over the photo, it says "CCTV footage of Jason Howard on his bike before the collision" so he could've gone onto the pavement/sidewalk/footpath anytime after.

[Neil]

No, he shouldn't have been on the sidewalk in the first place. How was she going to know where to move, why would she have to move out of a cyclists way when she was on the sidewalk which is for pedestrians? Where she was supposed to be safe? The only thing he had said was "move because I'm not stopping" - he made no attempt to break or swerve, that is what I would call stuck up. The fact that he could of swerved and avoided collision is even worse. Someone lost their life because of this arrogant man and hes gotten away with just a fine, its ridiculous.

The "sidewalk" as you call it is for pedestrians, bikes and mobility vehicles, not just prdestrians
There is no where "safe" in the world, everything is dangerous one way or another
He said move, he didn't just run into her did he? He was doing something, possibly for charity who knows, she should of got out of the way, if she was in his way enough that it pushed her to the ground causing her to hit her head then clearly she wasn't making much of an attempt to move, that's being stuck up, she could of run out of the way but did she? Obviously not, her friends could of pulled her to the side but did they? Possibly but obviously not soon enough, don't go putting all the blame on one personm, you don't know what happened, I don't know what happened you can't sit and assume the guy is in the wrong just because he hit her
Agreeably the guy should of slowed down, yes he is stuck up for slowing down but if he was doing something for charity like not stop or something some people care about things that much, he obviously didn't know he'd kill the girl, not one expects it to be possible to die after being hit by a bicycle, he would of stopped if he knew

[Virgin Mary]

He was probably on the sidewalk because there were cars on the road. I still don't see why she didn't move out the way.

[contagious]

The "sidewalk" as you call it is for pedestrians, bikes and mobility vehicles, not just prdestrians
There is no where "safe" in the world, everything is dangerous one way or another
He said move, he didn't just run into her did he? He was doing something, possibly for charity who knows, she should of got out of the way, if she was in his way enough that it pushed her to the ground causing her to hit her head then clearly she wasn't making much of an attempt to move, that's being stuck up, she could of run out of the way but did she? Obviously not, her friends could of pulled her to the side but did they? Possibly but obviously not soon enough, don't go putting all the blame on one personm, you don't know what happened, I don't know what happened you can't sit and assume the guy is in the wrong just because he hit her
Agreeably the guy should of slowed down, yes he is stuck up for slowing down but if he was doing something for charity like not stop or something some people care about things that much, he obviously didn't know he'd kill the girl, not one expects it to be possible to die after being hit by a bicycle, he would of stopped if he knew

The fact you've insinuated that it may have been for charity and "didn't just run into her" gives me a strong sence that you haven't even bothered reading it, so i'm not going to bother putting effort into a reply.


He was probably on the sidewalk because there were cars on the road. I still don't see why she didn't move out the way.

I do agree, she could of moved out the way but so could he. Its just a little arrogant saying "move because I'm not stopping" when there isn't exactly enough time when hes going down at 20mph or whatever.

[alexxxxx]

As above.

Edit; if you hover over the photo, it says "CCTV footage of Jason Howard on his bike before the collision" so he could've gone onto the pavement/sidewalk/footpath anytime after.

got me there. aha. please call it a pavement. sidewalk annoys me. it sounds like a moment of madness for the man, but who knows. £2.5k wasn't enough money.

[jrh2002]

The "sidewalk" as you call it is for pedestrians, bikes and mobility vehicles, not just prdestrians
There is no where "safe" in the world, everything is dangerous one way or another
He said move, he didn't just run into her did he? He was doing something, possibly for charity who knows, she should of got out of the way, if she was in his way enough that it pushed her to the ground causing her to hit her head then clearly she wasn't making much of an attempt to move, that's being stuck up, she could of run out of the way but did she? Obviously not, her friends could of pulled her to the side but did they? Possibly but obviously not soon enough, don't go putting all the blame on one personm, you don't know what happened, I don't know what happened you can't sit and assume the guy is in the wrong just because he hit her
Agreeably the guy should of slowed down, yes he is stuck up for slowing down but if he was doing something for charity like not stop or something some people care about things that much, he obviously didn't know he'd kill the girl, not one expects it to be possible to die after being hit by a bicycle, he would of stopped if he knew

I always thought cycles were for cycle lanes or the road :o the police my way used to go mad at you if they caught you on the pavement but dont ride a bike these days so not sure if they still do.

[AMERlCA...]

o dear

[Bun]

LMAO, downed by a bike :O.